Jail Compromise Proposed

Wackenhut Would Build Complex

Sheriff's Office Would Run It

The intense fight over privatizing a new women's jail evaporated suddenly on Tuesday when Sheriff Ken Jenne announced plans to team up with rival Wackenhut Corrections Corp.

Before a crowd of cheering deputies at the county jail in Fort Lauderdale, Jenne announced a proposal for Wackenhut to build the jail and the Sheriff's Office to run it.

``We're giving the people of Broward the best of all worlds _ construction experts and corrections experts,'' Jenne said.

The partnership must be approved by the County Commission, which at one point seemed intent on experimenting with a privately built and operated jail. Six private correctional companies expressed interest, but only Wackenhut was still in the running.

If the County Commission approves the proposal, the four-story, reinforced concrete jail would be built in the county's North Broward Detention Center in Pompano Beach.

An alternate site near the Broward County landfill in southwest Broward would be dropped from consideration.

Wackenhut and Jenne had been locked in battle over the jail since January, when the sheriff took office.

Jenne, strongly opposed to putting a private company in charge of criminals, fought to keep the jail and the jobs in the Sheriff's Office.

Joining the fight were the county's public employees' unions, which opposed privatization.

Wackenhut sent a platoon of lobbyists to convince county commissioners that the private prison company could run the jail safely for less money.

The proposal unveiled Tuesday would play to both sides' strengths.

The Sheriff's Office would keep control of the jail, using professional deputies to guard inmates. Wackenhut would get the contract to build the $25 million building.

The County Commission is scheduled to make the decision later this month, but the initial reaction was favorable.

``It seems to make a lot of sense,'' Commissioner John Rodstrom said. ``[The sheriff's) experience is in running prisons. Wackenhut's experience is in building prisons. To me it sounds like a good combination.''

Commissioner Scott Cowan, who has pushed hardest to privatize the jail, said he probably could be satisfied with the team approach.

``As long as it's cost-effective, I've got no problem,'' he said.

The 748-bed jail will help alleviate a crowding problem that has been building for years.

State sentencing guidelines require convicts to serve longer sentences. State prison space is reserved for the most serious offenders.

As a result, county jails have been filling up. Since 1994, just before the guidelines went into effect, Broward County's jail population has gone up about 25 percent, said Pete Corwin, assistant county administrator.

Inmates are sleeping on mattresses in open rooms, and the county is leasing cells from Monroe and Indian River counties for $65 a day per inmate.

During the past few months, private companies and the Sheriff's Office have been competing to offer the lowest price for running the jail.

Jenne's proposal Tuesday would cost the county $13.5 million a year, or $1.74 million less than Wackenhut's previous lowest offer.

The sheriff cut costs by reducing the number of sworn corrections officers in an earlier proposal by 23 percent and replacing many of them with lower-paid, non-sworn officers.

That's just the tactic that he sharply criticized when Wackenhut tried it.

``Non-certified officers are not adequately trained to deal with the potentially dangerous inmates that will be housed in this facility,'' he wrote in a March 5 letter to the County Commission.

Jenne insisted his reduction in sworn officers would not compromise security.

He reviewed the budget carefully with union officials, his corrections staff and corrections directors from other counties, he said. They found one major area to cut: the number of deputies used to take prisoners from place to place within the jail.

And in making the cuts, he said, he held to a rule that only sworn officers would come into contact with prisoners.

County commissioners seemed unfazed by the decrease in corrections officers.

``That's up to the sheriff,'' Rodstrom said. ``He sat down and he saw what he could do. I'm taking his word that the facility will be secure and it will be cost-effective.''

One question is whether the county could simply accept Jenne's operating proposal and put the construction project out to bid.

That may bring a lower price, but it would torpedo the sheriff's truce with Wackenhut.

Commission Chairwoman Lori Parrish said she needs to hear more about why the county should not seek bids.

``That was my issue to Ken,'' she said. ``I think that's an issue we have to think about.''

But Jenne said he hoped the commission would treat the proposal as a package.

``We hope the Broward County Commission will recognize the value of this proposal,'' he said. ``Most of all, the value of keeping the jail in the hands of professional corrections deputies.''